Urban Sketchers Paris Sketch crawl

10 am and we emerged from the metro somewhat nervous but just on time to meet the urban sketchers Paris for their 65th sketch crawl. A coffee, or in my case a tea, at a cafe served to unite the group before people set out in small groups to sketch in the near by covered passages. One of the sketchers made a diagram of the area which I immediately photographed should I get separated from the group. This fear turned out to be completely unfounded as sketchers were littered throughout the surrounding area all day long. The day was set up in two sketching shifts one before and one after lunch.

 
   I took pictures of virtually all of the sketchers but many of them turned and smiled making them off limits for this post since their faces were clearly visible.

The area chosen for the sketch crawl was a series of passages containing shops, restaurants, book shops and cafes. Many of the shops were really lovely and it is my intention to visit them should I be in Paris again one day. However, as time ticked on, five o'clock looming ever larger, shopping took the rear seat to drawing.

Almost every single person had a small stool with them, a fact that impressed me as we tend to gravitate toward benches here in Graz. Although carrying a stool is obviously convientient I was struck by how practical they were in terms of each person choosing their own unique position.

At lunch my Sister and I ate at one of the small cafes which seemed to be geared toward tourists. The food was really low quality so we decided to have dessert and coffee elsewhere and moved on relatively quickly. It was however, picturesque and afforded me the opportunity of adding a sketch to my book while waiting.

The afternoon led us into the adjoining passage to the one which we had frequented in the morning and there we found a lovely tea shop where we were able to sketch while enjoying our tea and dessert.

The other sketchers were much more disciplined ( I expect that they dined better than we did) and sketched from their stools.

One of the lovely features of the passage is the beautiful glass roof. The way it is pieced changes from section to section offering a lovely dappled light in which to work. I found it an ideal place to sketch in the colder months and am slightly disappointed that such passages don't exist here in Graz.

At Five O'clock everyone made their way to a restaurant for a drink to compare sketches. I was curious as to weather we would lay out the sketchbooks or how we would share them. It turned out that people just traded with each other, moving around the circle and flipping through each others books. This was great fun for me as it allowed me to see quite a lot of several people's work. I was not able to take pictures of the sketches however as the books were always in motion.

If you are curious about my sketches I have done a flip through in yesterday's blog post. Click here to have a look.

Have you been urban sketching with another chapter? I would love to hear your experiences in the comments. If you are in Graz and haven't been urban sketching I invite you to join us. The meet ups are always posted on our facebook page, Urban Sketchers Graz.

If you liked this post you might like:
 - Paris Sketchbook
- Graz Sketchbook
-First indoor sketching even of Autumn


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